Our seeds this week come from a plant that does not grow in the Sonoran Desert, but it is a shade-loving perennial favorite elsewhere.
Probably not many people grow them from seeds, which are found in seed pods on the flowering stalks.
These large, black seeds will produce a new plant, however. Do you know what that plant might be?
Edit:Â The answer is now posted.
To celebrate, let’s take a look at a few of our readers’ favorite seeds and seed pods over the past two years.
Starting out, Katherine says these bottle tree (Brachychiton) seed pods have wonderful boat shapes.
She makes intriguing felt crafts with them, including a darling felt sprout at One Inch World blog.
Not surprisingly, many of the fan favorites had to do with food.
Both Rebecca (of Rebecca in the Woods) and Mike (of Slugyard) shared Indian-inspired recipes for the chickpeas (also called garbanzo beans). Rebecca suggested cholay (curried chickpeas) and Mike chimed in with “…Indian chili. It has chickpeas, onions, garlic, tomatoes, ginger, and a tad bit of cashew nut butter (peanut works fine too). Oh, and ground lamb, and a bay leaf, turmeric, coriander, cumin, and garam masala. Delicious!”
Just writing this makes me hungry.
Note:Â the chickpeas in the photograph are actually dried seeds, ready for planting. That might be why they were difficult to recognize.
Cranberries also sparked a lot of interest.
Eamon believes cranberries are great in smoothies. I hadn’t thought of that, but people do drink a lot of cranberry juice, so I went looking for a recipe. I found a great one that took soymilk, cranberries, honey and half a banana. Very refreshing served over ice. Great suggestion, Eamon.
Lynne sent me a recipe for cranberry salsa. She says,
“You can use plain cranberry sauce from the store or make your own.
Add chopped jalepeno, 1 medium or more if you like it hot.
Chopped cilantro
Chopped green onion 1 or 2, mix.
…This is yummy over cream cheese, it makes a nice appetizer.”
Wow, thanks for sharing, Lynne!
I would also like to thank my cousin Karen for all her contributions to this blog, including this lovely mimosa flower. Karen blogs at Musings, Mischief and Mayhem and Leaping From The Box.
Looking back, we have covered some common seeds and some unusual ones. One of the most unusual seeds we have covered is from the tipu tree.
It is a legume with a seed that looks like a maple key. Very cool!
Does anyone remember our very first mystery seeds, from way back in November of 2009?
Thanks to everyone who has left comments and sent notes. You are a great community!
And, if you have any suggestions for upcoming mystery seeds I would love to hear them.
Our mystery cones from last week are from the tamarack larch or American larch, Larix laricina.
I was hoping someone would notice that the tree was lacking pine needles or leaves, although it had cones.
Here is the same tree in the summer. I love the soft, lacy foliage.
Larch trees are unusual conifers, because they are deciduous. The trees lose their needles/leaves in the winter.
Tamarack larch trees grow throughout the Northeast. They are very cold tolerant. Related species grow in northern Canada, Russia and northern Europe.
Look at the fall color of this stand of tamarack larch (by Linda Baird-White at Wikimedia)!
Have you ever seen a tamarack larch? Where was it growing?
For more information, see Roberta Gibson Writes.
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